Kendall Antonelli, who started a cheese shop with her husband. Antonelli’s Cheese Shop has taken off, and last year their revenue was $1.9 million. Kendall and her husband have found that they secret to their success is storytelling. They share the personal stories behind their cheeses and other products.
Famous 5:
- Favorite Book? – Good to Great, Uncontainable, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits
- Favorite online tool? — QuickBooks
- Do you get 8 hours of sleep?—Yes
- If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — Keep an adventurous spirit. Do something every day that betters yourself.
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:25 – Nathan introduces Kendall
- 01:40 – Kendall and her husband got the idea on their honeymoon
- 02:25 – Her husband wanted to find a better job, in cheese
- 03:00 – He decided to look into the business
- 03:40 – Kendall was working in social work
- 04:20 – They always wanted to work together
- 04:45 – She grew up in a farm town, and they “fell in love with the story of cheese.”
- 05:10 – They looked at their strengths
- 05:35 – Antonelli’s Cheese LLC
- 06:00 – Their rent
- 07:10 – Multiple business models
- 07:20 – Her and her husband have separate roles
- 08:25 – Open-book management
- 08:40 – $1.9 million in 2015
- 09:05 – “Passion with Purpose”
- 09:25 – Their retail is the most successful
- 10:00 – Cost is per pound
- 11:00 – Making cheese is a labor-intensive industry
- 12:15 – They decided to not be cheese makers, but be out of the kitchen and “storytelling”
- 13:15 – All the costs behind a wheel of cheese
- 13:40 – Team of six or seven people
- 14:05 – An artisanal journey
- 14:30 – Telling the story of the cheese
- 14:45 – Skews were as high as 2000
- 15:15 – Most lucrative products
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- 16:15 – Wholesale in 2015 was about half of their revenue
- 16:45 – Cheese of the Month Club
- 17:15 – Parties and catering
- 17:45 – Their wholesale market is more flexible for clients
- 18:25 – Dealing with a perishable item/shelf life
- 19:00 – They are looking into investors
- 19:25 – What they pay themselves
- 20:20 – They travel to cheese conventions around the world
- 20:55 – They want to be in control of their business
- 21:30 – Professional and personal life can coexist
- 24:00 – Antonellischeese.com
- 26:20 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
- Make your passion your business.
- Design a career that lets you accomplish your life goals.
- Your professional and personal life can coexist.
Resources Mentioned:
- Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
- Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
- Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
- Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
- QuickBooks – The accounting tool for Antonelli’s Cheese Shop
- Good to Great, Uncontainable and Mastering the Rockefeller Habits – A series of great business books that Kendall recommends.
- Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives